COLLEGE OF EDUCATION JOINS ASUU ON STRIKE

Three months after the Academic
Staff Union of Universities (ASUU),

shut down academic activities in
both Federal and State’s universities
across the country, lecturers in
colleges of education, under the
umbrella body of Colleges of
Education Academic Staff Union
(COEASU) had on Tuesday, began a
7-day warning strike to press home

their own demands from the Federal
and States Governments.
While joining their colleagues in
other colleges, Adeyemi College of
Education (ACE), Ondo chapter of
COEASU on Monday closed down the
main entrance to the college and
brought every activities on the
campus to a halt in an early
mourning protest march.
Chairman of COEASU in the college
and the national Vice-President of
the union, Samuel Akintunde and
Smart Olugbeko, respectively led
other members in the protest March
that preceded today’s (Tuesday)
commencement of the strike action.
The union leaders said COEASU
embarked on the strike action over
failure of the Federal Government to
honour the gentleman agreement it
entered with the teachers’ union in
2009.
The union also condemned the
protracted delay in the release
of the White Paper of the
Presidential Visitation panels to
Federal Colleges of Education,
arguing that the delay could only be
understood as a deliberate and
calculated attempt at not addressing
the critical issues that the panels
unearthed.
It also rejected the introduction of
Integrated Personnel Payment
System (IPPIS), stressing that it was
not only retrogressive, but infringed
on the very laws establishing
colleges of education and the
regulatory body; thereby capable of
obstructing the smooth running of
colleges of education.
COEASU then called on both Federal
and State governments to fund
education sector maximally, given its
strategic necessity as an
indispensable need in the
development strides of any nation.
Meanwhile, the management of
Adeyemi College of Education has
suspended the ongoing examinations
in the school, urging the students to
remain calm until COEASU call off
the strike.
Deputy provost of ACE, Olufemi
Olajuyigbe told newsmen that the
request for weaver to allow the
students to finish their exams was
turned down by the local chapter of
COEASU in order not to incur the
sanction of the national body.
Olajiyigbe, however pleaded with the
Federal Government to save the
education sector from total collapse
with the ongoing strike actions by
different academic bodies.